It’s been 14 months since Gov. Jerry Brown declared the state to be in a drought emergency, with a need to cut back on our water usage by 20 percent. So how’s it been going since then? Let’s just call it month-to-month.

As in, in those rare months when it rains quite a bit, as it did this past December, California homeowners with yards to keep green turn off their irrigation systems and we do very well on meeting the governor’s mandate.

Months when it’s hot and dry — most months these days — we don’t do nearly so well. This week, for instance still officially in winter, we’ve seen 90-degree highs with no storms on the horizon. Even those of us who have xeriscaped our yards, torn out grass and put the zinnias on a trickle feed instead of a big Rainbird blowing water out into the air have still felt the need to water, some, rather than seeing their landscaping dry up and blow away.

But, officially at least, three years into the drought, state authorities now have the ability to order $500 fines for excessive watering of lawns, hosing down driveways and running decorative yard fountains with drinking water.

But as the Associated Press reported in our papers on Monday, the fact is that only very rarely is that big-stick approach of levying fines being used by local authorities. “Warning letters are unusual. Small fines are rare. And the $500 hammer is virtually never wielded,” the report noted. In the big city of San Francisco, for instance, with a population of 846,601, there have been no fines issued at all. The result: An average monthly water savings of 8.3 percent, well below the governor’s target. Whereas in Santa Cruz, the one city that has cracked down hard, with $1.6 million in fines, usage has been cut by 24 percent.

If we all agree the drought is a problem, what is the best way to fight it? Should authorities use more of a carrot approach, with education and warnings, or should it be the stick, with fines for scofflaws?

What do you think?

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